WAW Post #3: Inventing the University

Write a narrative about a time when you had to "invent the university" or why you never have. Why is it important to be aware of this? How has it affected you?

 A Professor named David Bartholomae wrote an article in which he describes many of the troubles that his students face when entering an academic community. In this article he states:

[A student has] “to invent the university by assembling and mimicking its language while finding some compromise between idiosyncrasy, a personal history, on the one hand, and the requirements of convention, the history of a discipline, on the other hand.”

His ideas are mainly focusing on writing capabilities of students in English courses, but I feel that it could easily be related to other subjects regarding universities today.  In his article, Bartholomea focuses on the fact that students have to navigate their way through the university by "pretending" they know how to accomplish the writing task they have been assigned to do before they have actually learned how to do it. Basically saying that a student is at a disadvantage because they have “to take on the role–the voice, the persona–of an authority whose authority is rooted in scholarship, analysis, or research.”


A time that I had to create the university would most definitely be my freshman year of college when I first began working the theatre shop on campus in the Campbell Building. Like the students who have to invent the university through writing by relating their own personal knowledge to the expectations of their professor, I had to use my own previous experiences without the proper training to begin building set pieces. In this case I had to work to the expectations of the director of the current theatre show at the time. One of the tasks that I had to complete was putting up a vintage style wallpaper to wooden flats and then painting an intricate design on top of the wallpaper. As simple as putting up wallpaper may seem, there were a few places where the paper didn't quite remain secured to the flat. After numerous attempts it became evident that the adhesive I used wasn't applied properly. This mistake was made merely because I had never used this medium before, nor had I ever placed any form of wallpaper on another surface.

David Bartholomae argues in his article that students make errors due to lack of familiarity, not because they are incompetent. I believe that this is a nice thought, especially during the time I mentioned where I invented the university because it would be extremely discouraging otherwise. What I mean is that for a student working in the theatre shop it is trial and error, some things we are asked to do have yet to be taught to us.

I believe that if more professors realize students are having to frequently invent the university, that they would have more patience with us on some matters.Although it seems Bartholomae's writings are slightly condescending in a sense, they also shine a light on a matter that is affecting education institutions everywhere.